ABBA split up in 1982 following the release of their eighth studio album, The Visitors, on 30 November 1981. Renewed interest in the band grew from the 1990s onwards following the worldwide success of their greatest hits album ABBA Gold, the ABBA-based musical Mamma Mia! and the subsequent film of the same name, and the use of their songs in some other film soundtracks such as Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
However, the members steadfastly refused to reunite. In 2000, they reportedly turned down an offer of $1 billion to perform again. In July 2008, Björn Ulvaeus categorically stated to The Sunday Telegraph, "We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to re-group." Ulvaeus reiterated this in a 2014 interview while promoting the publication of ABBA: The Official Photo Book.
On 6 June 2016, however, ABBA did informally reunite, singing "The Way Old Friends Do" at a private party in Stockholm. This led to a more formal reunion. Two years later, in April 2018, they announced they had recorded two new songs, "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down".
The new songs initially were intended to support both a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC[27] and the ABBA Voyage tour which the TV special itself supported. However, this project was later cancelled in favour of the "ABBAtar" tour announced months prior.
One of the album's tracks, "Just a Notion", was previously partially included in a demo version as part of the medley "ABBA Undeleted" from the 1994 Thank You for the Music box set. The song was released as a single two weeks before the album, on 22 October 2021. However, instrumentation was (at least partly) re-recorded for this song.
